Effective collaboration among general education, special education, and support professionals is critical for the support of student learning and growth. However, preservice teachers rarely get the opportunity to learn about this process or to engage in meaningful interactions with professionals from other disciplines during their preparation…

In this qualitative case study, six novice English as a second language (ESL) teachers in a graduate course were asked to describe how they had enacted advocacy for emergent bilinguals. Data were gathered from pre- and post- surveys and semistructured interviews conducted after the semester ended. While the ESL teachers in this study were willing…

The highly diverse character of US universities provides an opportunity for writing programs to (re)examine the extent to which their current administrative, curricular, and pedagogical practices support a growing student population with unique linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds, resources, and needs. This dissertation research…

This qualitative phenomenological research study used narrative inquiry to examine the perceptions of recent high school graduate SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education) regarding secondary school support systems. The study aimed to discover factors that support acculturation of SLIFE and impact their persistence through to…

An understanding of the products that Generation Z students value the most from their college-level language study is essential for instructors who must effectively unpack second language theories within the context of their classroom instruction. This preliminary study examines the value system regarding language study as revealed in the…

The disruptive effects of the COVID pandemic on vulnerable and/or minority demographic groups among 1) student populations and 2) persons employed in low wage sectors are well-established. This study examined whether disparity in the disruptive effects of the pandemic extend to adult learners employed in "bright prospect" sectors (e.g.,…

This dissertation contains three essays discussing government policy in higher education, the effects of online social networks during college on students after graduating, and how to use search data as a tool to recover characteristics of both products and customers to estimate demand. In the first chapter, co-authored with Shengmao Cao, we study…

Chemistry graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) play a unique but important role in undergraduate STEM education. As leaders of laboratory and discussion sections, GTAs teach fundamental experimental techniques and reinforce course content in classrooms and have more opportunities to interact with students one-on-one or in small groups. GTAs often…

This qualitative exploratory case study looked at the challenges of perceived accessibility that needed to be addressed for visually impaired students to succeed in degree completion within the online learning environment. The biopsychosocial model of disability examined how human and environmental factors (social, biological, and psychological)…

This study is about student writers' development of their own approaches to using formulaic phrases from a compendium (Academic Phrasebank). While the essential role of formulaic phrases in academic texts has been well established in research, teaching about the effective use of these phrases is not widely available, and little attention has been…

The present study seeks to offer insights into how former study abroad students, temporally beyond the period of initial re-entry into their home environments, perceive Spanish as a foreign language in their lives now. This post-sojourn period is explored within the framework of the L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei, 2009) and the expanded…

This article explores the experiences of a humanities graduate after leaving the academy. The author considers her own education in light of the historical changes in South Africa's education system. The article is a personal account of the questions and challenges encountered in choosing a humanities degree in a context where a tertiary education…

The consideration of the impact of the dissertation services industry on the academy is a welcome piece by Jeffry L. White. White raises interesting questions and calls on educators and researchers to think deeply about the role they play in encouraging or combating the use of this industry by graduate students. In this piece, I respond to White's…

Historically, research examining graduate student socialization has attended to the structure of the socialization process, rather than how individuals interpret it. This qualitative study explored how 21 student affairs master's degree candidates made sense of surprises that emerged during their initial socialization experiences. The findings…

One of the central topics in the research of higher education is the degree of match between education and work as measured by earnings. Traditional literature has shown the correlation between the duration of studies and earnings in the work life. The authors' present study aims to enlarge this scope by evaluating the impact of competence and…